TNU Journal of Science and Technology
229(03): 12 - 19
http://jst.tnu.edu.vn 12 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn
APPLYING DEBATE TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS
FOR 10TH GRADERS
Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen1*, Pham Thi Nuong2
1TNU - University of Education
2Nguyen Trai High school, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Received:
16/5/2023
The ability to communicate in English, an international language, is of
great concern due to globalization and integration. Therefore, teaching
English speaking has been increasingly important. In addition, debates
have been proven to be an effective method to improve students’ speaking
skills, which inspired the researcher to conduct formal research to see
whether debates could be used in the context of a high school in Thai Binh
province. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of applying
debate techniques to improve English speaking skills for 10th graders at a
high school in Thai Binh province. The quasi-experimental method was
applied to find out the current situation of teaching English speaking skills
and to what extent debate technique can improve English speaking skills
for 10th graders. The data collection instruments consist of questionnaires
and tests. Sixty students were divided into experimental and control
groups. The treatment (using debate techniques in speaking lessons) was
applied to students in the experimental group only. The higher results of
the experimental group helped the researcher identify the effectiveness of
using debate techniques to improve students' speaking skills.
Revised:
30/6/2023
Published:
30/6/2023
KEYWORDS
Debate
Debate technique
Speaking skills
10 graders
Effectiveness
ÁP DỤNG KỸ THUẬT TRANH BIỆN ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI
CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10
Nguyễn Thị Hồng Chuyên1*, Phạm Thị Nương2
1Trường Đại học Sư phạm – ĐH Thái Nguyên
2Trường THPT Nguyễn Trãi, huyện Vũ Thư, tỉnh Thái Bình
TÓM TẮT
Ngày nhận bài:
16/5/2023
Khả năng giao tiếp bằng ngôn ngữ quốc tế là tiếng Anh đang rất được quan
tâm trong bối cảnh toàn cầu hóa và hội nhập quốc tế. Vì vậy, việc dạy kỹ
năng nói tiếng Anh ngày càng trở nên quan trọng. Ngoài ra, tranh biện đã
được chứng minh là một phương pháp hiệu quả để cải thiện kỹ năng nói của
học sinh, điều này đã thôi thúc tác giả tiến hành nghiên cứu chính thức để
xem liệu tranh biện có thể được sử dụng trong bối cảnh của một trường trung
học phổ thông ở tỉnh Thái Bình hay không. Nghiên cứu nhằm mục đích khảo
sát hiệu quả của việc áp dụng kỹ thuật tranh biện để nâng cao kỹ năng nói
tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường THPT ở tỉnh Thái Bình.
Nghiên cứu bán thực nghiệm được áp dụng để tìm hiểu thực trạng dạy kỹ
năng nói tiếng Anh và kỹ thuật tranh biện có thể nâng cao kỹ năng nói tiếng
Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 ở mức độ nào. Các công cụ thu thập dữ liệu bao
gồm bảng câu hỏi và bài kiểm tra. Sáu mươi sinh viên được chia thành các
nhóm thực nghiệm và đối chứng. Liệu pháp (sử dụng kỹ thuật tranh biện
trong giờ học nói) chỉ được áp dụng cho học sinh nhóm thực nghiệm. Kết
quả cao hơn của nhóm thực nghiệm đã giúp tác giả xác định được hiệu quả
của việc sử dụng kỹ thuật tranh biện để cải thiện kỹ năng nói của học sinh.
Ngày hoàn thiện:
30/6/2023
Ngày đăng:
30/6/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.7954
* Corresponding author. Email: chuyenknn@gmail.com
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
229(03): 12 - 19
http://jst.tnu.edu.vn 13 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn
1. Introduction
Speaking is a very important skill to be learned when a person studies a new language because
it helps to communicate with others, express ideas and give opinions. The ability to speak
proficiently is considered one of the most challenging language learning skills. According to
prevailing beliefs, verbal communication is considered to hold the highest significance among the
four essential language proficiencies. However, several students claim to have invested numerous
years in studying the English language yet still struggle to speak it effectively and coherently [1].
For various reasons, Vietnamese students find it difficult to learn how to speak English. First
of all, classes frequently have too many students. It might be challenging for a teacher to focus on
every student in a large class when teaching English because each one needs individual attention.
The second issue is that because Vietnamese is a tonal language, it might be challenging for
students to speak English with the right rhythms and intonation. Because of this, it is frequently
impossible for native English speakers to understand Vietnamese students when they speak
English. Another issue is that students are frequently afraid of making mistakes when speaking a
foreign language. However, speaking a language is the only way to learn it. Although
Vietnamese students are taught English in educational institutions and can attain good grades on
assessments, a large number of them are still insecure about conversing in the language.
For the above issues, the English teacher needs to be aware of creative approaches and carefully
chosen teaching methods, especially when it comes to training speaking skills. Dobson [2]asserts
that debate style is one of the methods for enhancing speaking. Whether it's a scientific, historical,
theological, or political debate, speaking skills are improved. It can aid in the intellectual and
ethical growth of its participants by pressing them to reach justifiable decisions in which they must
critically examine difficult issues and challenge presumptions. Debatable topics encourage and
hone communication skills that enable people to speak for themselves.
Debate is popular as an extracurricular activity for competition. Debate, according to Harahap
[3], is an activity that is able to develop the skill of communication by organizing some
arguments to convince and entertain audiences to prove that one’s arguments upper hands the
opposition. In addition, Sanonguthai [4] defined debate as delivering opposing arguments toward
a current issue by two teams to prove to the audience that their ideas are better than the opposite
team’s cases. The purpose of a debate is not about seeking an agreement between two disputing
parties when they leave the debate room. Instead, through the debate, others will make a
judgment to support one of the two [5]. Freeley and Steinberg [6] define debates as “… the
process of considering multiple viewpoints and arriving at a judgment…”.
Debate is a method of discussing ideas or opinions that two rivals are trying to defend. It can
be used as a tool in EFL(English foreign language) classes for English language skills practice in
real-life situations for learners. . It is a communicative interaction that involves different
perspectives by delivering critical arguments [7]. Rubiati explained that debate is an activity in
which the students are required to defend their positions on the topic of a particular issue [8].
Similarly, Alasmari and Ahmed [9] also stated that debate was a method of conveying arguments
using different strategies of logical thinking to build ideas in the favor of persuading audiences
and guiding them to the conclusion of the debate issue.
"Debate" has been viewed as a potentially successful spoken pedagogical technique that can
structure and feed the learning process in ways that can result in language growth [10], [11].
During a dispute, speaking commands the lion's share of attention. In addition to scheduled
speech, debaters frequently speak impromptu in order to respond to the arguments of their
opponents, particularly during the "clash" stage.
Musfirah [12] used a quantitative method to find out whether teaching speaking by using the
debate method is effective for the students’ speaking ability. The mean score obtained by the
students in the post-test (2.470) was greater than that in pre-test (1.529) proving that debate
method was effective and interesting to use in teaching English speaking.
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
229(03): 12 - 19
http://jst.tnu.edu.vn 14 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn
B. D. Vu and H. T. Duong [13] finds out the current situation of applying debate in
speaking lessons and proposed solutions to improve English speaking response for the second-
year English major students at Thai Nguyen University of Education. A. V. Nguyen [14]
investigates into the implementation of debate techniques and claims that it is useful to
improve students’ speaking skills.
Studies have shown that participating in debates improves students' speaking abilities.
According to the debaters in El Majidi, de Graaff, and Janssen's (2018) study [15], debate
enhanced their speaking skills by a mean of 4.26 on a 5-point Likert scale. Participants in the
studies by Zare and Othman [16] claimed that debate had improved their speaking abilities.
Therefore, the researcher is interested to conduct research on applying debate technique to
improve English speaking skills for 10th graders at a high school in Thai Binh Province”
2. Methodology
2.1. Research setting and participants
The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of applying debate technique to improve
speaking skills for 10th graders at a high school. To achieve research objectives, the author
designed the study according to the quasi-experimental method. According to Nunan [17],
“experiment is a procedure for testing a hypothesis by setting up a situation in which the strength
of the relationship between variable can be tested”. He also classified three types of experiment,
pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, and true experimental research designs. Quasi-experiment
refers to the study that collects information from the pre and post-tests between the control and
experimental groups of participants. This is also suitable for this study as the researcher used both
the control and experimental groups. The respondents were not selected randomly as the
researcher, also the teacher had no right to rearrange the students in her class. Afterwards, the test
results were compared to look for any difference in their performance that can explain the
impacts of the treatment. In this study, the treatment is using debate technique, which is applied
to 10th graders. The treatment in each group is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Non-Randomized Control Group Design
The treatment (debate technique) was applied for experimental group only. The treatment time
lasted one term and was divided into eight lessons.
The respondents of the study were sixty high school students, who were divided into two
groups (experimental and control groups), and ten English high school teachers. The students
were in the school year 2022-2023.
2.2. Research instrument
The data collection instruments consist of surveys (questionnaires) and tests. The tests are
created to examine the difference of student’s ability after using debate techniques in speaking
lessons in 4 aspects: grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation, and
interactive communication. Sixty students of the same level were divided into experimental and
control groups. The treatment (using debate techniques in speaking lessons) was applied to
students in the experimental group only.
Experimental group
Control Group
Pre test
Pre test
Post test
Post test
Treatment
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
229(03): 12 - 19
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2.3. Data collection and analysis
Regarding data collection, three questionnaires were used to get the information related to the
current situation of teaching English-speaking skills and the use of debates in speaking lessons.
The questionnaire comprises of a set of questions in the form of multiple-choice and rating-scale
items. The multiple -choice allows the participants to select from various options, while the rating
-scale involves respondents to choose from a range of options, categorized from poor to good. In
addition, students were required to complete the questionnaire and tests to identify the students’
attitudes towards the use of debate techniques in speaking lessons as well as how the use of
debates helped them improve their speaking skills. The treatment time lasted one term and was
divided into eight lessons.
As for data analysis, the survey responses were gathered and entered into Excel for
processing. The quantitative analysis was applied to a number of parametric figure types. To
assess the effectiveness of applying debate technique to improve speaking skills for 10th graders,
statistics from both tests were analyzed and compared.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Results
3.1.1. The current situation of teaching English-speaking skills
Firstly, the activities that teachers often use to teach speaking were shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The activities that teachers often use to teach speaking
Figure 2 illustrates the activities that were often used by the teachers to teach speaking.
Discussions and presentations were used the most frequently, accounting for the same percentage
(80%). In second place were interviews and brainstorming, both of which took up 70%. Other
activities selected by the teachers were role-play (60%), storytelling (50%), information gap
(40%), and debate (20%). 20% of the teachers also added two more activities that they used in
teaching speaking, including picture description and reporting.
Secondly, the teachers’ questionnaire collected information on the teachers’ assessment on
their students’ speaking abilities, which were demonstrated in Figure 3.
In speaking classes, teachers frequently use diverse criteria to evaluate their students' speaking
proficiencies, ultimately assigning objective grades. This assessment methodology also
encompasses the tracking of students' progress and furnishing them with constructive feedback to
foster their linguistic development. The aforementioned criteria typically encompass elements
such as pronunciation, vocabulary, accuracy, fluency, and intonation.
Generally speaking, the teachers assessed their students’ speaking abilities ranging from poor
to fair. Specifically, 80% of the teachers rated that their students had average speaking abilities in
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Others
Discussion
Interviews
Debate
Storytelling
Brainstroming
Information Gap
Presentation
Role Play
The activities that teachers often use to teach speaking - Teachers' questionnaires
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
229(03): 12 - 19
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general. 10% of the teachers believed that their students’ level of speaking was fair, and the same
number thought that their students were poor at speaking.
Figure 3. Teachers’ assessment on their students’ speaking abilities
The activities that teachers often used in speaking lessons were also collected in the students’
pre-questionnaire.
The information on the activities that the teachers often used in speaking lessons collected
from the students was quite different from the one collected from the teachers. While according
to the teachers, they used discussions and presentations most frequently, 70% of the students
thought brainstorming and discussions were used most (Figure 4). Presentation and role-play
were in second place. Though there were some differences in the most frequently used activities,
the least frequently used one remained the same with storytelling, information gap, and debate.
Figure 4. The activities that teachers often use in speaking lessons – students’ pre-questionnaire
The pre-questionnaire also collected information on how the students assessed their speaking
skills, which was shown in Figure 5.
After each speaking class, students are provided with grades and feedback by their teacher.
These assist individuals in assessing their own speaking skills, identifying their areas of
weakness, and dedicating more effort towards enhancing those deficits. According to Figure 5,
only ten percent of the students thought that their speaking abilities were good. Half of the
students believed that they had average speaking levels. 40% of them rated their speaking skills
Poor, 10%
Average, 80%
Fair, 10%
Teachers’ assessment on their students’
speaking abilities
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0
5
10
15
20
25
Role Play Presentation Information
Gap
Brainstorming Storytelling Debate Interviews Discussions
The activities that teachers often use in speaking lessons – students’ pre-
questionnaire
Number Percentage